Medimetriks Pharmaceuticals, Inc. divested exclusive US rights for Xepi (ozenoxacin cream) 1% to Cutanea Life Sciences, Inc. for up to $30 million, with $29 million to be paid in 2018, plus the assumption of $5 million in liabilities related to Xepi. Medimetriks retains generic rights to the product.  Xepi is a novel bactericidal, non-fluorinated quinolone for the treatment of impetigo that Medimetriks licensed from Ferrer, a privately held Spanish pharmaceutical company, in March, 2014. Xepi was approved by FDA in December 2017.

"We believe Xepi is an important new treatment for patients suffering from impetigo, a common, highly contagious bacterial skin infection," stated Bradley Glassman, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Medimetriks.  "We are pleased that Xepi will be commercialized by Cutanea."

"The sale of Xepi is strategically important so we can substantially retire our debt owed to Knight Therapeutics," continued Mr. Glassman.  "We are focused on building our core dermatology business while developing our Phase 3-ready asset, MM36."

MM36 is a novel topical non-steroidal phosphodiesterase IV (PDE4) inhibitor in development for the treatment of mild to moderate atopic dermatitis that recently completed Phase 2 studies.  MM36 has been shown to be safe, well-tolerated and provide rapid and sustained itch relief when applied twice daily to AD patients aged two to 18 years.